|
|
|
Leads Have Value Only if They're Managed
Leads aren’t terribly hard to
get. They can be purchased or bartered for. They can come from enquiries
or from prospecting. Regardless of how they’re obtained, bulk quantities
of leads are out there, waiting to be acquired.
But that doesn’t mean these leads have any real value. They have
to be contacted, made an offer, and usually followed-up several times
before they can be sold and converted into customers. This is a
time-consuming and often expensive process, and it’s where most
businesses get it wrong.
A lead is really just raw material, waiting to be turned into something
of value. This value-add requires careful management, from the moment
the lead is acquired until finally the sale is made and a new customer
joins the database. Like any other industrial process that converts raw
material into a finished product, lead management can be viewed as a
series of steps that, when followed, will yield the desired results.
Leads are like raw materials in another important way – don’t do
anything with them and they’ll just stay as they are, unprocessed
commodities with no real value to your business. If you’ve bought a list
of leads and don’t manage them correctly your results will be
predictable and expensive.
There are many lead management software applications on the market and
as you’d expect, some are better than others. Some are suited to smaller
businesses and others cater to the needs of larger firms. We’ll just say
that having a lead management system that incorporates one of these
applications is always a good idea.
Modern lead management systems are a combination of people, software and
processes that work together to acquire, manage and convert leads into
sales. Lead management isn’t just having a team of salespeople that
prospects and sells, although selling is an essential part of the
process.
If your business already has a lead management system in place that
doesn’t depend on a software application you may want to consider
acquiring a program that’s compatible with your firm’s system. If you
don’t have a lead management system but want to design one, here’s a way
of going about it.
What is the Sales Process in Your Business?
How is selling carried out in your company? Are your products sold
directly to purchasers or through a dealer network? Do you use agents?
You need a clear understanding of the sales process now happening in
your business including the people and processes involved. Which
channels work best and which deliver the greatest profits?
You also need to identify responsibilities within the sales process –
not just who does what, but who is in charge of the process. If you have
multiple selling channels prepare an outline for each one. It’s
important that everyone in the sales process is accountable for their
achievements.
How are Leads Managed Now?
Whether formal or informal, your business will have a lead management
system of some kind, even if it’s just a database on the sale manager’s
PC. Document the way in which your company manages leads from the time
they enter the business until the time they’re either converted to a
sale or abandoned.
Review this process to identify the trail of leads through your
business. As you did with the sales process, identify responsibilities
for everyone involved with handling and managing leads.
How do you Create Leads?
List your current sources of leads. Some will be purchased and others
acquired through your own lead-generation activities. Leads are the
‘input’ into any lead management system and their sources need to be
accommodated by the processes your business uses to deal with them.
Brainstorm What You’ve Found
This is the fun part. You’ve documented what’s already been happening
with sales and with leads; now comes the time to review it with everyone
involved in the process.
Just by reviewing the processes now in use you’ll have identified
several weak points or places where leads are being mishandled or not
handled at all. Go through every step in your selling and lead
management procedures and iron out the rough spots. Build on successes
and get rid of the failures.
It’s most important that you identify any places where leads can be lost
or drop out of the system. This is often the case when the next
‘trigger’ in managing leads depends on some sort of feedback from the
prospect. They don’t always respond like they’re supposed to.
What you’ll end up with is a system with which you’re already familiar,
but now it’s been ‘repaired’ and will work a lot better than it has
before. Take this system to a specialist in lead management and look for
the right application to bring into your business to help you get the
most out of every lead.
|
|
